Health | 100 Tips

6 Ways to Impress Trainers Without Even Trying

Photo: Getty Images

Personal trainers have one job: To help you work out. Specifically, work out stronger, better, and smarter. And because they’ve spent so much time on the gym floor (or in your living room with Daily Burn), they have a few opinions on how to get down to business the right way. Here’s what not to do—but more importantly, how to get more out of your workout, sidestep injury, and set yourself up for some fitness success.

6 Ways to Step Up Your Gym Game

1. Go in with a game plan. “So often you see people at the gym roaming around aimlessly with little direction,” says Kara Griffin, a certified personal trainer in Los Angeles and founder of Feel This. Instead, she wants gym-goers heading in on a mission. “It can be as easy as, ‘Today I’ll do cardio for 20 minutes, strength training for 15, and stretch for five minutes.’” she says. It’s simple, yes. “But at least you’re going into your workout with some kind of direction and intention. You’ll leave with your workout endorphin high but also a sense of accomplishment!”

2. Relax. Yes, you read that correctly. Even when you’re going hard at the gym, you should make a point to stay relaxed. “I consistently see too much tension in people’s muscles, especially in their faces,” says Jimmy Minardi, personal trainer and yoga teacher in East Hampton, NY. “People tend to be too stiff when they [work out], which can lead to muscular imbalances. Your shoulders should be back and down, neck elongated, allowing you full range of motion in your body.”

3. Get low. Like, really low. “I wish people would learn how to squat properly—ideally so thighs are parallel to the ground at least,” says Dara Theodore, an instructor at the Fhitting Room in New York City and a Daily Burn 365 trainer. The squat is one of the most common exercises and will make its way into a variety of workouts, discipline notwithstanding. To fix your form, she recommends starting with air or bodyweight squats first. That’ll help you figure out where you’re tight and what muscles you need to work on most.

4. Stay for the whole class. How annoying is it when you’re in the zone, powering through the last few minutes of a HIIT class or trying to find final Savasana on your yoga mat and someone steps on your mat to duck out early? “It’s disruptive to the rest of the students who got there on time and want to take the last few minutes to enjoy the workout,” notes Becca Pace, a Daily Burn 365 trainer in New York City and owner of inyourpacefitness.com. Just hang out for those final, amazing stretches — you already volunteered your time to the class anyway.

5. If you’re gonna swing, swing right. Kettlebell swings are the bomb for blasting calories and toning you up all over—but they be can quite painful if you’re doing them wrong. “I clench my teeth when I see people do the slow, hunched-over kettlebell swing,” says Rachel Mariotti, a personal trainer at Equinox in New York City. “Swings are supposed to generate power in your hips, keeping a nice, long spine and slightly bent knees.”

6. And if you’re gonna lift, lift heavy. Doing crazy-high reps of super-light weights is a major trend right now due to the popularity of barre classes. And while those are great, you shouldn’t follow that means of weight training all the time. “If you can comfortably and safely do more than 12 to 18 reps for three sets of anything, you need to lift heavier,” says Brooke Sheely, a trainer in San Diego from YG Studios. “During at least three of my workouts a week, I try to stay in the8- to 12-rep rangeusing heavy weights—especially for leg and booty day. You will see results and you won’t have to spend hours lifting little weights. More bang for your buck!”

This article originally appeared on DailyBurn.com.

More from Life by Daily Burn:

The 25 Craziest Workout Excuses

9 Healthy Homemade Protein Bar Recipes

The 20 Worst People at the Gym, According to Trainers

Life by Daily Burn is dedicated to helping you live a healthier, happier and more active lifestyle. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or de-stress, a better you is well within reach. Get more health and fitness tips at Life by Daily Burn.

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Time to Follow-Up After a Positive Colon Cancer Test Varies by Hospital

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If your stool-based colon cancer test should come back positive, just how long it takes for you to get follow-up care may depend on your hospital, a new study finds.

The study of more than 62,000 patients cared for in four different U.S. health care systems found that the time to a colonoscopy following a positive stool-based test ranged anywhere from 41 days to almost 6 months, depending upon the hospital.

Too long a wait for a follow-up colonoscopy — needed to detect cancer — could have grave consequences, the study authors said.

“If a patient hasn’t received a colonoscopy within 6 months of a positive fecal blood test, they are unlikely to in the future — at least not without some further intervention,” study lead author Jessica Chubak said in a news release from the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The study was published in the journal on Feb. 3.

A fecal occult blood test is a recommended and noninvasive test for colon cancer based on a stool sample. Typically, patients whose test comes back positive — indicating blood in the stool, a potential sign of cancer — are then referred to a follow-up colonoscopy.

The study patients, aged 50 to 89, all received a positive result on a fecal blood test between the start of 2011 and the end of 2012.

Chubak’s team found a significant range in the median length of time between the positive fecal blood test and any follow-up colonoscopy for patients across the four health care systems. The median times for each health system were 41, 47, 84 and 174 days.

The chance that a particular patient might get his or her follow-up colonoscopy within one year of a positive stool-based test ranged from about 58 percent to nearly 84 percent, depending on the hospital system, the investigators found.

The oldest patients, those aged 70 to 89, were least likely to undergo a follow-up colonoscopy. Rates were also lower for patients who had never before been tested for colorectal cancer and for those with other health problems, Chubak’s team said in the news release.

The findings “may help health care providers and systems identify patients in need of targeted interventions to complete follow-up,” said Chubak, who is an associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

The study did not examine whether delays in getting follow-up colonoscopies increased the risk of death from colorectal cancer, but that will be examined in future studies, Chubak said.

One expert said the findings bring up “important issues” in colon cancer screening and care.

Delays in patient follow-up are “not a new problem,” said Dr. Minhhuyen Nguyen, director of clinical gastroenterology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “Various studies have identified patient and physician factors concerning why colonoscopies are not performed in a timely fashion,” she added.

Nguyen believes that money could be one factor, since “the recent cut [by Medicare] in reimbursement for colonoscopy may compound the problems of this needed targeted intervention.”

But there may also be good reasons why older patients, especially, aren’t referred to colonoscopy.

“Risks such as perforation, bleeding or sedation complications associated with colonoscopy rise with advanced age and/or significant medical [illnesses],” Nguyen said. These types of patients “should meet with the endoscopist in advance of the procedure for further evaluation,” she suggested.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about colon cancer screening.

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When Seniors Stop Driving, Poorer Health May Be a Passenger

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Older adults who give up driving may see their mental and physical well-being decline, a new research review finds.

The review of 16 published studies found that seniors tended to show poorer health after they stopped driving — particularly in terms of depression.

Researchers said it’s not clear that the health problems are a direct result of giving up the car keys.

But they said it’s likely there is a vicious cycle: worsening health — including vision problems, physical limitations and waning memory and judgment — causes older people to stop driving. That, in turn, can speed their decline.

“This is a very complex issue,” said senior researcher Dr. Guohua Li, founding director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

On one hand, Li said, older drivers need the necessary physical and mental skills to be safe behind the wheel. And at some point, many must give up driving.

On the other hand, that decision has significant consequences, Li said. Older adults who stop driving can feel socially isolated, which could feed depression. They may also become less physically active, which can exacerbate physical health conditions.

“It’s a sensitive balance,” Li said, “and the pros and cons of not driving need to be weighed on a case-by-case basis.”

The review, published online recently in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, looked at 16 studies that compared older adults who’d stopped driving with those still on the road.

Five studies focused on depression symptoms. Overall, older adults were twice as likely to see worsening depression when they stopped driving, even when factors such as age, physical health and mental decline were taken into account.

“Driving cessation was most strongly associated with the risk of depression,” Li said. “But the health effects were actually broader than that.”

Some other studies found that after older drivers gave up their keys, they often reported worse physical functioning and showed faster declines in memory and other mental abilities.

Those who gave up driving were also more likely to die over the next three to five years, compared to their peers who kept driving — again, even when researchers accounted for people’s initial health and mental sharpness.

Dr. Marian Betz, a spokesperson for the American Federation for Aging Research, said the review highlights an important issue: How does society balance road safety against the “many benefits” seniors get from driving?

“There’s a stereotype that older drivers are dangerous,” said Betz, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

It’s true, she added, that many older adults develop conditions that can interfere with driving. But there are options other than taking their keys away — at least immediately.

“Older adults and their families can think about ways to limit driving,” Betz said. “They can avoid night-driving, or driving on busy roads during rush hour, or in other situations that may be disorienting.”

If physical limitations, such as neck immobility, are the issue, an occupational therapist might be of help, Betz said. She added, though, that the therapy could be expensive if insurance doesn’t cover it.

Eventually, many seniors do give up driving, then turn to alternatives such as getting rides from family or using buses and taxi cabs.

But, Li said, no one knows whether that prevents health consequences. There’s little research on the issue, he added, but there’s some evidence that alternative transportation does not ward off depression.

“The mere availability of transportation may not be enough,” Li said.

According to Betz, driving is so integral to adult life, seniors can feel they are losing part of their identity when they give it up. But some of the depression is probably also related to social isolation, she said.

“So anything we can do to help them stay engaged in the community is beneficial,” Betz said.

She suggested that older adults and families look to local senior organizations for help.

Li agreed, and said there’s a vital need for more programs to keep seniors mobile and socially engaged after they stop driving.

In 2012, nearly 36 million Americans aged 65 or older were licensed drivers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More information

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has resources for senior drivers.

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Sitting for Hours May Raise Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Sitting for long stretches might boost your risk for type 2 diabetes, even if you exercise, researchers report.

Each extra hour in a sedentary position — whether working on the computer or lounging in the recliner — seems to increase your odds of type 2 diabetes by 22 percent, the study authors said.

“We found that people with diabetes spend more time sitting than people without diabetes — about 26 minutes more” a day, said lead researcher Julianne van der Berg, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

However, she cautioned that the link between sitting and diabetes is only an association, and doesn’t prove that sitting causes type 2 diabetes. “We cannot have any conclusions about cause and effect,” she said.

These findings are independent of any high-intensity exercise, such as running or swimming, van der Berg added.

“We all know that physical activity is important, but now we see that sitting is a bad thing,” van der Berg said. “The more you sit, the higher the risk [for type 2 diabetes], regardless of how much you exercise.”

Why sedentary behavior may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes isn’t yet known, she said.

But given the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes worldwide and the large amounts of time people spend being sedentary, studies like this are important, van der Berg and colleagues added.

The report was published online Feb. 2 in the journal Diabetologia.

Diabetes means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal. Untreated, the disease can lead to heart and kidney disease, blindness and limb amputations.

Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said many factors increase someone’s risk for type 2 diabetes, including a genetic predisposition for the disease.

Inactivity and diet are known factors for raising the risk, he said. “It is not only the time we spend in front of the TV or computer, it is also the type of food and or snack we consume when sitting in front of the screens that increases the risk,” he said.

For the new report, researchers collected data on nearly 2,500 adults, average age 60, who were part of a population-based study in the Netherlands.

To clock time spent in a sedentary position, participants wore an accelerometer for eight days. During that time, van der Berg’s team calculated daily sedentary time, the number of sedentary breaks, prolonged sedentary periods — 30 minutes or more — and the average length of these sedentary periods. Participants also had their blood sugar checked.

The investigators found that 56 percent of the participants had normal blood sugar; 15 percent had elevated blood sugar, and 29 percent had type 2 diabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes had the most sedentary time — up to 26 more minutes daily — compared to those with elevated or normal blood sugar, the researchers said.

However, no connection between the number of breaks from being sedentary, the number of prolonged breaks or the length of breaks and diabetes was found, according to the report.

“This study shows that in order to avoid or delay diabetes — independent of high-intensity physical activity — people at risk should be aware of and avoid, or reduce, the amount of sedentary time,” Zonszein said.

More information

For more on type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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Why Trash Talking Sugary Food Makes You Want It Even More

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When you were a kid and your mom told you not to touch something, what was the first thing you wanted to do? Touch it, right? Now apply that theory to your eating habits. If someone tells you to steer clear of the cookie jar because those little morsels of goodness are chock-full of calories, aren’t you even more tempted to grab one (or three)? Rest assured, you’re not the only one.

In a series of three studies, researchers at Arizona State University found that when dieters were exposed to negative messages about food (think: “Sugary snacks are bad for you”), they craved unhealthy food more. (Yep, you read that right.)

In the first study, folks who read a negative message about dessert had more positive thoughts about these bad-for-you foods than folks who were exposed to a positive or neutral message. In the next study, dieters read either a positive or negative message about sugar-laden snacks; then watched a video while noshing on cookies. The result: The negative-message group ate 39% more cookies than those who read a positive message. And in the final study, dieters who viewed a message that listed both the pros and cons of their snacks choose fewer unhealthy ones than dieters who read a strictly negative message.

RELATED: 20 Snacks That Burn Fat

“We think dieters increase their interest in and consume more unhealthy foods after seeing one-sided negative messages because they feel like their freedom to control their food choices is threatened,” explains Nguyen Pham, one of the study’s researchers. This is why Pham recommends using a mix of positive and negative messaging—such as “Dessert tastes good, but is bad for my health”—to help keep your consumption in check.

“Dieters do not see double-sided messages about unhealthy foods as a threat to their freedom,” she says. “Instead, they view these messages as providing even more freedom of choice. As a result, they are more likely to comply with the messages and choose less unhealthy foods.”

So the next time you are about to police your (or a friend’s ) food choices, try this mental trick instead. It may just provide you with the resolve you need to walk away.

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We Found the Best Winter Moisturizer for Your Skin Type

Between the dry, frigid outdoor air and the heat being pumped out of your vents, your skin can take a serious beating in the winter. “These conditions strip the skin of natural protective lipids and proteins, compromising the skin’s barrier,” says Mona Gohara, MD, a dermatologist at the Yale School of Medicine. The solution: a thicker moisturizer. You wouldn’t wear your summer sundress into a blizzard, so why should you wear the same lightwei moisturizer? Here, five cold-weather approved hydrators for every skin type.

If you have acne

Try: CeraVe Moisturizing Cream ($16; amazon.com)
Acne sufferers tend to stay far away from heavy creams but if you choose one that’s non-comedogenic, it can help instead of harm. CeraVe strips out all the bad, irritating ingredients and only leaves the derm approved ones – dimethicone, glycerin, and ceramides – so skin is left hydrated without any other baggage.

Photo: amazon.com

If you have sensitive skin

Try: DERMADoctor Calm Cool & Corrected ($85; sephora.com)
If you’re prone to skin irritation, read labels carefully; you’ll want to see “hypoallergenic” and “fragrance free.” This moisturizer uses hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, chamomile extract, squalene, and shea butter to protect and hydrate delicate, sensitive skin without making it angry.

Photo: Sephora

If you want to fight wrinkles

Try: L’Oreal Paris Revitalift Volume Filler Daily Re-Volumizing Moisturizer Cream ($21; target.com)
Hyaluronic acid fights wrinkles and is also major hydrator, so it works double duty for your skin. This one offers a major dose of the miracle ingredient so you can see results fast while fighting the winter elements.

Photo: Target.com

If you want to brighten up

Try: Peter Thomas Roth Camu Camu Power C X 30 Vitamin C Brightening Moisturizer ($72; sephora.com)
Look for vitamin C if you want to illuminate your complexion. This one boasts 30 times more vitamin C than an orange and contains glycerin and avocado oil to lock in moisture.

Photo: Sephora

If you have oily skin

Try: Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel ($17; amazon.com)
To prevent looking like you have an oil spill on your face, always opt for a lotion or gel formula over cream. Creams can be too heavy on oily skin, clogging pores and adding shine. This gel is packed with hyaluronic acid to quench skin’s thirst for moisture while also being oil free and non-comedogenic so you’re not left with a tacky feel.

Photo: Amazon.com

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This University Is Requiring Freshmen To Wear Fitbits

Photo: Getty Images

A small Oklahoma college has come up with a unique strategy to fight the notorious Freshman 15. Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa is requiring its first-year students to wear Fitbits.

The new policy, which went into effect last fall, isn’t a drastic change for the ORU student body (which includes about 3,400 undergrad and graduate students). Physical fitness has always been a big part of campus life at the school. In fact, students have been required to keep a written log of their aerobic activity as part of ORU’s fitness curriculum ever since the Christian university was founded in 1965.

But now ORU is kicking things up a notch, by expecting freshmen to log 10,000 daily steps on their Fitbits, reports NBC News. And yes, their steps will count toward their grades. Data from the trackers will automatically be collected by the school, which prides itself on its holistic philosophy.

“ORU offers one of the most unique educational approaches in the world by focusing on the Whole Person–mind, body and spirit,” said President William M. Wilson in a statement.

RELATED: 9 Best Fitness Trackers

The freshmen, however, are responsible for purchasing their own trackers. (Fitbits start at $60.) The school has reported that the on-campus bookstore has already sold more than 550 of the gadgets.

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Texas Health Officials Report Sexually Transmitted Case of Zika Virus

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Local health officials in Texas have confirmed a case of Zika virus infection that was transmitted by sex, and not by the bite of a mosquito.

The virus, which is typically spread by mosquitoes, is suspected of causing thousands of birth defects in Brazil.

The Dallas County Health and Human Services Department reported Tuesday that an unidentified patient had become infected with the Zika virus after having sex with an individual who had returned from Venezuela, one of the Latin American countries where Zika is circulating.

“This increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others,” Health Department Director Zachary Thompson said in a statement. “Next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against sexually transmitted infections.”

Scientists have suspected that Zika could be transmitted sexually, and there have been scattered reports of similar occurrences in recent years.

If it proves that the virus can be spread through sex, it could greatly complicate efforts to contain infections from the virus, which health officials have said is “spreading explosively” across South and Central America.

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, “The Zika virus is typically transmitted by mosquitoes‎, but we are now seeing another pattern of transmission via sexual contact. This mode of transmission needs to be studied more carefully to understand the ways that the virus can potentially be spread in this manner.”

The news out of Dallas comes one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus a global health threat, based on the suspicion that the virus may be to blame for thousands of birth defects in Brazil in the past year.

While the Zika epidemic first surfaced in Brazil last spring, it has since spread to more than 20 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Though a cause-and-effect link has not been proven, many public health experts fear the virus can cause microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with permanent brain damage and very small heads.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said Monday that the explosive growth of microcephaly cases in Brazil constitutes an “extraordinary event and a public health threat to other parts of the world.”

Chan made her remarks during an emergency meeting at the U.N. health agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to assess what is known about the Zika virus and its potential relation to the surge of birth defects in Brazil.

The WHO estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year. However, no recommendations were made Monday to restrict travel or trade, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday added four more destinations to its list of 20 countries in Central and South America and two U.S. territories that pregnant women are advised to avoid traveling to because Zika infection is active there. The four destinations added were American Samoa, Costa Rica, Curacao and Nicaragua.

U.S. health officials have said it’s unlikely that the Zika virus will cause a widespread threat here, but some infections are likely to occur.

The Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947, and until last year was not thought to pose serious health risks. In fact, approximately 80 percent of people who become infected never experience symptoms.

But the increase of cases and birth defects in Brazil in the past year — suspected to exceed more than 4,100 — has prompted health officials to warn pregnant women or those thinking of becoming pregnant to take precautions or consider delaying pregnancy.

“It is important to understand, there are several measures pregnant women can take,” Chan said, the AP reported. “If you can delay travel and it does not affect your other family commitments, it is something they can consider.

“If they need to travel, they can get advice from their physician and take personal protective measures, like wearing long sleeves and shirts and pants and use mosquito repellent,” she said.

Underscoring the level of concern about travel, U.S. health officials said late last week that they were considering whether to put a halt to blood donations from travelers returning from countries affected by the Zika virus, primarily in Central and South America.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that a review of blood donation policies was underway, based on whether a person may have been exposed to the virus.

“The FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] is looking at the issue of blood supply, blood donors and travelers,” Fauci said. “We know it [the Zika virus] is in the bloodstream very briefly, most people have cleared the bloodstream of the virus after about a week.”

Canadian health officials announced last Thursday that they would put blood-donation restrictions in place by this week.

Monday’s public health emergency declaration by the WHO can unleash action and research funding from governments and non-profits around the world. And it gives the WHO the position of global coordinator, and its decisions the force of international law, The New York Times reported.

The agency came under heavy criticism for what many considered a poor and delayed response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa two years ago that eventually took more than 11,000 lives.

U.S. health officials said at last Thursday’s media briefing that efforts to create a Zika vaccine were getting a leg up from lessons learned during earlier battles against other mosquito-borne viruses.

Researchers are working on two potential vaccines, each based on earlier vaccines created in response to prior outbreaks of West Nile virus and dengue, Fauci said.

A Zika vaccine could be ready for clinical trial by later this year, but Fauci warned that it will likely take years before the vaccine is ready for market.

“It is important to understand that we will not have a widely available safe and effective Zika vaccine this year, and probably not even in the next few years,” he said.

There have been no outbreaks of Zika virus in the United States so far. But, limited U.S. outbreaks are “possible” and “even likely” given that the same sort of aggressive, day-biting mosquito that spreads Zika is present in the southern United States, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, Schuchat emphasized that the main health concern at this time is for pregnant women who are exposed to the virus.

“Increasing lines of evidence suggest that some women who are infected with Zika during their pregnancy may go on to deliver a baby with a serious brain injury,” Schuchat said.

But Schuchat emphasized that the virus does not present a strong health risk to the average person.

“About four of five people who get infected with Zika never have symptoms at all,” she said. “Those who do get sick usually have very mild symptoms — fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes or conjunctivitis. Symptoms typically last a couple of days, up to a week.”

Schuchat said that “it’s very rare for a person with Zika to get seriously ill or to die” from it.

Schuchat did note that health authorities in Brazil also have reported an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and paralysis lasting as long as a few years. Researchers are now investigating whether there is any link between Zika virus and Guillain-Barre.

Although health officials view some U.S. cases of Zika infection as likely, particularly in southern states, the United States enjoys certain advantages that should keep such an outbreak limited to a small area, Schuchat said.

Urban areas in the United States are less congested than they are in other countries of the Americas, making it more difficult for mosquitoes to spread disease hopping from one person to the next, she said.

Also, people in the United States are more likely to have their windows shut, thanks to air conditioning, or to have screens on open windows, which keep mosquitoes from invading their homes, she added.

More information

For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Babies Born Late May Be at Risk for Complications: Study

TUESDAY, Feb. 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Babies born weeks after their due date may be at increased risk for complications and illness that can land them in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a new study suggests.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel examined data from about 23,500 women who had babies at Rabin Medical Center in Israel over five years. The women had no pregnancy complications and their babies were born from 39 weeks to 44 weeks of pregnancy. Pregnancy is considered full-term at 40 weeks.

Infants born after 42 weeks were about twice as likely to develop infections, respiratory problems and to be admitted to the NICU than those born at 39 to 40 weeks, according to the study.

While the study found an association between a prolonged pregnancy and risks of complications for a baby, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Only about 5 percent of births actually occur on the predetermined due date of 40 weeks, the researchers noted. While artificial induction of labor is sometimes recommended when a pregnancy continues much longer than expected, many women reject it.

“Our study implies that even in otherwise low-risk pregnancy, it is advisable not to postpone delivery beyond 42 weeks. Therefore, it is reasonable to offer induction of labor to women reaching that time of pregnancy and maybe a little earlier,” study co-lead author Dr. Liran Hiersch said in a university news release.

“There are women who refuse induction of labor, even more than two weeks past their due date. Without the relevant data, it is difficult for doctors to convince them otherwise,” he said.

“Maybe now, with this research and further studies in hand, we can convince them that even though their pregnancies had experienced no complications — and they are being monitored, say, every three days — they’re potentially risking infection, illness and other unforeseen complications by refusing medical intervention,” Hiersch added.

This study focused on complications immediately after birth. The researchers are now examining if infants born well past their due date are also at increased risk for long-term problems.

The study findings were published recently in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal and Neonatal Edition.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health outlines the stages of pregnancy.

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Scientists Piggyback Experimental HIV Vaccine on Cold Viruses

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Scientists report progress in their bid to develop ways to piggyback an HIV vaccine on germs that cause colds.

In the new study, Harvard researchers said they successfully used cold viruses to deliver an experimental HIV vaccine to humans.

The approach “appears to be safe and well-tolerated, and the injection induces a moderate immune response against HIV in humans,” said Dr. James Crowe, director of Vanderbilt Vaccine Center in Nashville. He was not involved in the study.

The research doesn’t mean that a long-sought HIV vaccine is near; these scientists focused on developing better ways to deliver a potential vaccine into the immune system.

Researchers have long sought to develop a vaccine against HIV, but the virus is especially stubborn.

“Most experimental vaccines tested to date don’t seem to induce strong or protective immune responses,” Crowe said. Even when they work well, he said, they tend to only prevent infection with a single strain and not the many strains of HIV that infect people.

In the study, the researchers piggybacked an experimental HIV vaccine onto two types of cold virus — adenovirus serotype 26 and adenovirus serotype 35. These cold viruses are rare, Crowe said, so most humans wouldn’t have developed immunity to them.

The researchers then injected 217 healthy people not infected with HIV in Boston and parts of Africa (Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa) with at least one cold virus/HIV vaccine combo or a placebo. Seventy-eight percent of the subjects were black. Seven participants dropped out and didn’t finish follow-up tests.

The findings showed that the cold viruses are a safe way to deliver the vaccine, and the vaccine triggered an immune response in most of the people, said study co-author Dr. Dan Barouch. He is director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.

According to the study, nearly 16 percent of those who got the actual vaccine suffered moderate to severe problems near where they were injected. But the study authors said no one suffered severe side effects from the vaccine itself.

It’s not clear if the effects of the vaccine will last past a year. The cost of vaccines using this approach is unknown, although Crowe said it’s “cost-effective” to deliver vaccines into the body via cold viruses.

One expert noted another positive finding that came from the study.

“They also found out that giving two vaccines over three months is just as good as waiting until six months for the second dose,” said Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of the Bridge HIV research unit with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “That is a big advantage, as more people are likely to complete their vaccination if the doses are closer together, and the immune response, if protective, will start protecting them sooner.”

The research was funded by several organizations, including the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and Crucell, a vaccine maker that’s part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

What’s next?

More research is needed to determine whether this strategy will protect people at risk of getting infected by HIV, Crowe said. Studies of this type are “quite large and complex,” he said, and they’re likely to require several years before the results are known.

Study co-author Barouch said this research is part of a larger effort to explore ways to piggyback vaccines onto cold viruses. Crucell has said that it’s studying the use of these particular cold viruses to deliver an Ebola vaccine into the human body.

The study was published Feb. 2 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

More information

For more about HIV vaccine research, visit the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mbgDrg

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